Rich, Black, Flunking (Education Study)

East Bay Express ^ | SUSAN GOLDSMITH

[jeremiah]

The blacks have a real problem, they see everything as racial. Ask the kids if they identify with black or white, and see the ones that think black, are the ones that do poorly, regardless of race. I'd be willing to bet those that look puzzled at this question, don't spend all day worrying about such minor things as color of skin, or the beat of music.

[jeremiah]

It doesn't matter how much money or affluence the blacks garner in the classroom, it is never enough for some. His statement shows exactly where his head is, eating out of a govt supplied trough, like the slave he has made himself.

[jeremiah]

It is because, the blacks always have race on their minds. They are like teenagers with sex on the mind in their single mindedness. It is in the movies, the music and of course amongst the so-called leaders of the A A movement.

[SauronOfMordor]

It doesn't matter whether the students are in Shaker Heights or an inner city. The achievement depends on what expectations the teacher has of the students." Hilliard, who is black, believes Shaker Heights teachers must not expect enough from their black students.

The expectations of the teacher for the students matters much less than the expectations of the students for themselves. The opinions of the teacher only matter if the students care about what the teacher thinks

[m18436572]

As an example of the consequences of allowing this to continue: My neighbor has a daughter who recently FAILED her 6th grade math class and, as expected, failed her end of year test, which is required to continue to the 7th. The principal (who is black), concerned about his newly aquired position, passed her on to the 7th grade anyway. When he was confronted about this, he told the mother that, in fact, she would not be held back (which was the mothers wish) and would continue on to the 7th grade regardless of whether the student was prepared or not. In fact, he told her there was nothing she could do about it. The decision was not in her hands.

I need more specific details about this situation, but I am very concerned, as my kids are about to enter this same school. We are in Raleigh, which is supposedly KNOWN for its above average school system.

[JustRight]

"We need more money pumped into the system in the form of higher teaching salaries to attract better teachers. "

I don't think you can pay good teachers enough more to work in that kind of environment. What is needed is to get rid of the NEA so crappy teachers can be dumped from all school systems. Then take kids that can't behave acceptably at school and send them to boot camp, no TV, no videogames, where they work like dogs AND do their homework. When they get out, they'll want to stay in the regular school.

[Incorrigible]

Hey rdb3!  This is your neck of the woods.  Thought you'd be interested.

Dude!  You've been spending a lot of time on your About page!

Open source consulting not keeping you busy?  Time to switch to Windows!  :-)

[kidd]

Soon after he left Ohio and returned to California, a black parent from Shaker Heights went on TV and called him (Ogbu) an "academic Clarence Thomas."

This is a dead giveaway. Clarence Thomas is arguably the most powerful, influential, respected and most successful black man in this country. I would take this as a compliment, but this was intended as an insult!

If the Shaker Height black parents don't want their kids to aspire to the kind of success that Clarence Thomas has achieved, then they must be encouraging failure.

[Abe Froman]

OK, blacks think that getting good grades and speaking standard english are "white" social traits? In what way are the parents concerned that the kids aren't succeeding? They ARE succeeding from the black point of view, aren't they? They are "retaining their identity" by becoming failures and dropouts. Isn't that black success? When you promote the idea that hard work, success, and good grades are racial traits of a race other than your own, why are you suprised when your children fail??

I don't understand why the parents were concerned about their kids' success in school to the point that they had Ogbu come to study them. In fact, the kids are living out their parent's social notions perfectly. They are becoming all they can't be, which is apparently of value to the black community.

[Abe Froman]

Ha!! I wonder why Asians smoke whites in Academic achievement.........

[Incorrigible]

Probably work better if I pinged rdb3 himself!

rdb3, post 47 was for you!

[NathanR]

"What I found interesting is whites described their relationship with blacks as okay and blacks described it as tension filled. I have read and come across these two different perceptions. Why is this?"

There is an old book called "How to Lie with Statistics" which uses an example where the same survey questions were asked of black and white people. The only difference was the race of the questioners. The answers were completely different. The excerpts one can find below don't have the relevant parts, but it is an interesting book.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393310728/qid%3D1017362333/sr%3D1-1/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F1/104-9044164-7288714

[agarrett]

My old college roommate is a high school teacher with 15+ years in the classroom. He says that the single most important factor in determining a student's success is parental involvement.

  My wife is a grade school teacher, and would largely back up your roommate's theory. She finds, though, that there are some parents who are heavily involved, but usually in making excuses for their child. Every year there are 1 or 2 like that - I usually start hearing the names early in the year, and know I will hear them repetitively the rest of the year. And those kids usually don't do well - the next year's teachers find them just as bad as my wife does.

  On the other hand, the majority of parents who are involved with their child's schoolwork do quite well.

Drew Garrett

[CaptainK]

"Why should the school be punishing the child for not completing homework"

The school punishes the child and I assume the parents do too. Why shouldn't the school punish the child? If they throw food in the lunchroom should the school ignore it, assuming that the parent will take care of the problem?
If both the school and the parent are on top of a problem the student will benefit.

[zeugma]

You ain't kidding!

Too Darned Long To Read Right Now Bump!

[dirtboy]

Ogbu concluded that the average black student in Shaker Heights put little effort into schoolwork and was part of a peer culture that looked down on academic success as "acting white."

Sound of hammer squarely hitting nail. Heck, it was tough enough as a smart white kid for me to deal with the peer pressure against academic performance back in the 1970s. I can only imagine what it's like for smart black kids now. Sociologists have what they call the crab-bucket syndrome - if you have a bunch of crabs in a bucket and one learns how to get out of the bucket, the other crabs will pull it back in. Same applies here.

[jimt]

What I found interesting is whites described their relationship with blacks as okay and blacks described it as tension filled. I have read and come across these two different perceptions. Why is this?

Because most American black people have been inculcated with victimhood and see EVERYTHING through their unwavering belief in racism.

[LADY J]

"Because most American black people have been inculcated with victimhood and see EVERYTHING through their unwavering belief in racism."

The hardest part for me to understand is why intelligent blacks can't see that the Jesse Jacksons of the world value education and private schools for their own kids.They preach 'do as I say - not as I do'.

When these parents are not poor or needing welfare - I wonder what they feel is to their benefit or of any value to their children to continue this farce?

[Howlin]

Geez!

[jimt]

When these parents are not poor or needing welfare - I wonder what they feel is to their benefit or of any value to their children to continue this farce?

That's the saddest part. Clearly, relying on victimhood and unwavering belief in racism is hurting their children - and themselves. I don't know how long it will take before they discard these failed ways of thinking and recognize their full potential.

Meanwhile, the "gangstas" from the "hood" spewed out by uncaring unwed "mothers" are not helping one bit.